Project Overview: Research Project 2 is centered on the translational research of devising and applying novel and tunable magnetic nanoparticles (MNP), ultrasensitive magnetic sensor chips, and highly efficient magnetic sorters for cancer biomarkers and cells. As illustrated in Figure N3.2.1, the resulting magneto-nano protein chip platform will detect protein biomarkers down to attomolar concentrations (Aim 1.A) and will be used for monitoring therapeutic response of lung cancer (Aim 1.B) and early diagnosis of ovarian cancer (Aim 1.0). The resulting magnetic sifter (Aim 2.A) and tunable MNP (Aim 2.B) will be used to harvest circulating tumor cells from lung cancer patients or ovarian cancer stem cells with unprecedented capture and release efficiencies of >90% (Aim 2.C), critical for both cancer diagnosis and treatment. These rare cells will be interrogated with the nanotechnologies in Aim 1, as well as Project 3 (N3.3.5.2.1.3), by single cell protein and nucleic acid profiling and secretome analysis to further elucidate cancer pathways and metastasis (Aim 3). The application of these advances in nanotechnology to pre-clinical models and clinical subjects will lead to better understanding and treatment of cancer.